Kansai and Sinshiu
In the Japanese classification, Kansai and Sinshiu originally indicated the section of Japan where the silk originated, but of recent years they have come to mean hard or soft natured silks respectively. The “Sinshiu No. 1” is usually considered the standard quotation to use in judging the market trend.
“Chops”
The Chinese quotations are probably the most difficult to understand since they go almost entirely by “chop”—that is, well-known brands which are marked in some distinctive way, as shown on the above list of quotations.
CHAPTER IV
MANUFACTURE OF THROWN AND SPUN SILK
We have covered in the preceding chapters the culture of raw silk, its reeling, and finally its marketing in the countries where it is to be manufactured into the finished textile. We now come to the mechanical phases of the industry, by which raw silk is made first into yarn and then into fabric. Whereas, in the case of cotton and wool, we have seen that yarn is manufactured by various modifications of the spinning process, this is not true in the case of silk. The spinning process is here supplanted by an operation known as “throwing,” and is resorted to only in the manufacture of yarn from the various kinds of silk waste.
1. Thrown Silk
Necessity for Throwing
The ordinary raw silk, as it comes from the filature and is sold in the market, is composed of from two to eight filaments adhering together by virtue of the natural gum secreted by the worm. This thread is too thin and delicate for many uses and so must be submitted to further twisting and doubling—a process called “throwing.” It must be borne in mind, however, that there are several types of fabrics in which raw silk is used without going through the throwing operation. This is usually the case, for example, with the warp threads for crepes, charmeuse, and messaline.
“Throwsters”